Conventionally, in order to allow a printed substrate for use in an electrical connection box of an automobile or the like to be connected to an external electrical component, a substrate with terminals has been provided in which multiple substrate terminals, which are provided upright, are connected to printed wiring of a printed substrate by inserting first end portions of the substrate terminals into through-holes provided in the printed substrate and then performing soldering.
Incidentally, in order to hold the substrate terminals in an upright state on the printed substrate, the substrate terminals are held in a state of passing through a base made of a synthetic resin, thus positioning and holding the substrate terminals on the printed substrate via the base, as shown in JP 2008-35669A, for example.
However, with this conventional structure, a separate component, namely the base, needs to be prepared, and the operation of press-fitting the substrate terminals into clearance holes of the base needs to be performed, thus having a problem in that an increase in the number of components and an increase in cost cannot be avoided. There is also a problem in that solder cracks are readily formed due to a difference between the linear expansion coefficients of the base and the printed substrate.
Also, as shown in JP 2003-338333A, there has been a proposal to both connect substrate terminals to a printed wiring and hold the substrate terminals in an upright state on the printed substrate by press-fitting first end portions of substrate terminals into through-holes of a printed substrate without using a base.
However, with the method of press-fitting first end portions of the substrate terminals into through-holes, it is not possible to avoid cases where a plating layer in the through-holes becomes detached during press-fitting of the substrate terminals, and the printed wiring, which is made up of copper foil or the like provided in an inner layer of the printed substrate, undergoes deformation due to pressing force during press-fitting of the terminals. Also, due to pressing force that is applied to the printed wiring (inner-layer copper foil) and the like in an inner layer during press-fitting, so-called measling occurs in which glass fibers become detached due to thermal stress in a subsequent soldering step or the like, and this has the possibility of leading to a circuit failure in the printed substrate with terminals. As a result, this has brought about the problem of degradation in the product accuracy of the printed substrate with terminals.
The present invention has been achieved in light of the above-described situation, and a problem to be solved by the present invention is the provision of a printed substrate having a novel structure in which substrate terminals can be fixed to the printed substrate without needing a base, and the substrate terminals can be press-fitted into through-holes with a reduced amount of pressing force applied to printed wiring and a plating layer in the through-holes, and also the provision of a printed substrate with terminals that uses the same printed substrate.